How Banks Can Utilize Online and Offline Data to Increase Acquisition

In many ways, marketing in financial services is Brave New World meets Back to the Future. Many of the ideals of CRM from the 1990s are coming to the forefront again, driven by technological advances in online media and customer adoption of multiple online and offline channels. While most banks understand the importance of getting the right message to the right target in the right channel at the right time, the challenges to make that happen are no less substantial than they were 25 years ago. In fact, with the addition of digital and mobile media, data has exploded, creating the "big data dilemma" of how to capture, store, summarize, and utilize this additional consumer behavior for optimized marketing and customer experience.

Financial services, more than any other industry, has substantial transactional and channel behavior to capture and use for marketing purposes, but many will fail in trying to harness this plethora of information. Consumers are looking for security, ease of use, and relevancy of communication. Those who can capitalize on advanced technologies and create intelligence from the data to actually implement Connected Customer Relationship Marketing (cCRM®) within their business will be empowered to provide consistent messaging and integrated channel experiences that will create great customer interactions with your financial institution.

Knowing the challenge many banks are facing, I want to share with you an example of how a top 10 regional bank was able to gain insights from both their offline data-driven marketing assets and online media and use it to target at the individual consumer level.

Main Objectives

Develop a targeted approach using traditional offline marketing data to define high-value households, and integrate those insights into the online targeting environment in a real-time process.

Build a multi-channel approach to the online digital data acquisition (DDA) campaign that leverages display, landing page, email lead capture/management, and coupon process to allow targeted high-value households to open accounts online or offline based on the consumer-preferred channel.

Approach

We developed a digital optimization platform to combine online with offline data in a real-time process to target high-value households researching financial products online. The platform applies the data and targets at the individual consumer level. Targeting online media allows us to concentrate on quality leads and conversions, finding the customers you want, as opposed to only targeting based on clicks. Once the high-value target is found in real time online, a conversion path is identified to open accounts online or offline, based on consumer preference, ensuring relevant and timely offer communication while these consumers are actively researching.

Outcomes

Through the online checking acquisition pilot program, combining a digital optimization platform and online-to-offline conversion path, we were able to increase the penetration of quality new households with high-value deposit balances. The program delivered against all campaign objectives:

We were able to demonstrate that targeted online media can drive engaged and valuable quality relationships. This resulted in higher engagement for checking accounts, online banking usage, and deposit balances, including both money market and savings accounts.

Understanding how online and offline data work together to give marketers insights into consumer behavior will allow banks to create competitive advantage for themselves in the market. As it stands, most banks have separate online and offline departments; connecting the two and working together on campaigns will create an overall better experience for your customers.